Clinton Visit Better Never Than Late, Nebraskans Say

History’s most traveled American president--the man who has been to California 56 times, Missouri 19 times, Oklahoma six times and neighboring Kansas twice--has managed to bypass the great state of Nebraska for eight straight years. Until today.

When Air Force One touches down this morning--a smaller version since the usual 747 will not fit on the runways of the tiny airport here--William Jefferson Clinton finally will grace this very Republican state with his presidential presence.

Whether this stop on his legacy tour is a good thing or a bad thing was the topic all week at the 8 a.m. shift of the Coffee Dunkers Club at the Sugar Bee Bakery in downtown Kearney, a conservative city of 28,000 where Clinton finished third in the 1992 presidential election behind George Bush and Ross Perot.

“I’m not real happy about it, I don’t mind tellin’ ya,” Jim Maxon, a Republican, groused Thursday from the smoking table to which he had been banished.

“Ah, don’t listen to him,” Jerry Grossart, a fellow Republican, groaned. “I’m going to go see Clinton. But I didn’t want to tell anybody that.”

The fact is, Nebraskans do not think much of the 42nd president--nearly 7 of 10 who were surveyed recently said they dislike him as a person. And the timing of his visit 44 days from the end of his tenure almost seems gratuitous, sort of like showing up at a New Year’s Eve party at 2 a.m., when everybody else is collecting their coats.

The White House likes to say it has saved the best for last. In fact, Clinton is tying up the loose ends of his legacy. He granted an interview to Rolling Stone, published Thursday, decrying his own “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays in the military. Next week, he travels to Northern Ireland, where he is a hero for steering a torn nation toward peace. And today, as he gets the 50th state travel stamp on his passport, Clinton is expected to make a major address outlining his foreign policy successes.

News of the Visit Stirs Up Nebraskans

But this pragmatic, no-frills state--the one that invented the 911 emergency system, the frozen TV dinner and Kool-Aid--is not buying this last-ditch attempt to write history on Nebraska soil.

Word of the visit has had Nebraskans stirred up since last week, when White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert piped the University of Nebraska fight song through the White House speakers by way of announcing that the time had come.

Democrats here scrambled to see the Gulliver of politics in person. Students stood in line at the crack of dawn Thursday for tickets to hear Clinton make his speech at the University of Nebraska’s Kearney campus.

“I’m thrilled he’s coming,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Anne Boyle said, cautioning Clinton-bashers to respect the office and hold their tongues.

But that is hard. Indeed, some Republicans prepared to greet the president as though he were a toxic spill about to pollute the entire state.

“In Nebraska, we have Clinton-free air, Clinton-free water, Clinton-free land and Clinton-free morals. Of course, that all comes to an end Friday,” state Republican Party Chairman Chuck Sigerson grieved.

Buffalo County GOP Chairman Jim Berton told the Omaha World-Herald that Clinton’s visit is ruining some people’s Christmas.

And the calls at local radio station KGFW were coming in at a rate of 12 an hour, a predictable majority of them less than pleased about their soon-to-be honored guest.

But whether they love Clinton or hate him, Nebraska’s bottom-rung position on the list of presidential priorities is cause for wonder. Was it something Nebraska said? Or did? Or didn’t do?

Sure, delegates boasted at last summer’s GOP convention of a Clinton-free zone as they cast their votes for George W. Bush. And Sen. Bob Kerrey, a rare Nebraska Democrat on Capitol Hill, once labeled the president an “unusually good liar.”

“It’s not only that Nebraska is consistently Republican in the presidential vote . . . but even elected Democrats here would pass as Republicans in most of the country,” said Loree Bykerk, associate professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

But this is a president known for tenacity in the face of adversity, and it seems it would take more than partisan venom to keep Bill Clinton out of the Cornhusker State.

The more likely reason the state is last on his list is that a breadbasket state like Nebraska is important when it comes to feeding the world but not so much when it comes to fueling national political ambitions. Five electoral votes virtually certain to go Republican are not a great incentive for a Democratic president seeking reelection--or even one safely ensconced in his second term. And there have not been any natural disasters to draw Clinton here.

Invitations Included Golf and Burger Offers

That he comes at all is a tribute to Nebraska perseverance; few states have sent more invitations. Four young scholars who visited the White House last summer registered personal appeals. The pot was sweetened with a round of golf at a local renowned country club. Delores Wasserburger, owner of Sioux Sundries and Restaurant in Harrison, promised to make him the biggest hamburger he’d ever see--a 32-ouncer.

Nothing worked.

So why now? Maybe it’s the meticulousness that comes when the clock runs out, particularly for a president so conscious of his place in history. With no leverage left for major policy, thoughts turn to taking care of details.

In a way, Clinton did Nebraska a favor. It’s doubtful that a parade of national media would have converged on tiny Kearney had Nebraska been No. 25 on Clinton’s list of states to visit.

Today, he goes to the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument to the pioneer spirit, to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha and finally to a $1,000-a-person fund-raiser for the state Democratic Party. His mere presence will shine an elusive spotlight on a state that some people only see on the way to someplace else.

“Some people don’t even know where Nebraska is,” said Sherone Fielder, owner of the Quilters Trunk on the bricked street of Kearney’s Central Avenue. She is not a Clinton fan. “At first I felt like he was dissing us. But now he’s sort of done us a favor.”

For the people of Kearney, that means the chance to tell the world they are rural but not rubes, that it’s pronounced CAR-nee, not KER-nee. The last time a sitting president passed through here was when Harry S. Truman went to the Baptist Church some 50 years ago.

This is a lot of attention for a little town where little happens. Where the walls of the Busy Bee Bakery are lined with autographed pictures of famous people--from Art Linkletter to Roy Rogers--who were never actually there.

“We just mail away for them,” one of the Coffee Dunkers confided.

This time, like him or not, they’re getting the real thing.